There's a telling moment in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, long after the paint had dried. Off an Aaron Williams steal on the other end, Daniel Ewing brings the ball up with the Clips down 22. He swings it over to James Singleton way out on the near side arc. James fakes the three - he has just sunk one - then dribbles back up top and returns the ball to Ewing. Not to be deterred from executing this phenomenal two-man game with Singleton 25 feet from the basket, Ewing returns the ball to Singleton, who has TT setting a screen on James Jones, with Pat Burke hedging. Singleton can't decide what he wants to do. Meanwhile, Corey floats in and out of your television screen, about 25 feet from the basket beyond the top of the arc. When Corey does appear, it's an all too familiar pose - weight on his back foot, eyes on the ball, wearing a nothing-you-have-over-there-is-better-than-Corey-Maggette-isolating-on-Raja-Bell expression. As Singleton holds the ball, Maggette keeps sliding ball side, so that at :09, there isn't a single Clipper on the weak side. The ball goes over to Corey, who is straddling the arc. When the ball lands in Corey's hands, Aaron Williams - bless his heart - sets a screen on Bell, which opens up the entire left side for Corey against Amare on the switch. Meanwhile, Thomas has just shifted up to his spot. With :08, Corey can drive, kick it back out to Thomas, or ... of course ... shoot the ball. For Corey, proximity to the ball always takes precedence over how he can help space the floor in a halfcourt set. Damned if he'll ever settle for being a skip pass away.

The defensive bête noire of the night comes a few minutes earlier, with about 5:40 left in the third quarter, following a Raja Bell steal. Nash runs it up the floor. When he crosses over the arc, he's got the following two choices: A trailing Amare with nothing between him and the basket but Tim Thomas at the smiley-face stripe underneath, or Shawn Marion in the corner, Thomas being the closest guy to him. In essence, it's the defensive rendition of the aforementioned offensive set: Every Clipper is on the ball side of the court. Nash penetrates and, as every Clipper collapses, he delivers a swing pass to Marion in the left corner. He's Shaun's guy but -- see if this makes any sense - the closest guy to Marion as he launches the shot is Steve Nash, whose momentum has carried him that way. He actually beats Shaun Livingston to the close-out.

And that's the thing with Phoenix. Every guy on the team has the instinctive ability to find, at any given instant, the exact spot on the floor where he serves the most usefulness. The Clippers - who never had great spacing, but whose defensive rotations and switches had become pretty good by last May - are now the fundamental opposites.

It was interesting to watch parts of the game on TNT when I got home, because I wanted to hear what Doug Collins and, to some extent, David Aldridge and Charles Barkley had to say about the team. Collins showered Mike Dunleavy and the team with sympathy, while Barkley, who drank the Clipper Kool-Aid early last season, called the Clippers the biggest disappointment in the league. I like Aldridge a lot, but was befuddled by his prescription for the Clips - that they acquire Jason Kidd. What would the Clippers accomplish by adding a point guard who has two years and $40 million remaining on his deal after this season? While Kidd is a distributive genius, he can't shoot the ball any better than Shaun. Is there anyone who honestly believes that Kidd could improve the Clippers enough to propel them into the second round of the playoffs?

There's one nice thing about closing up shop early on the season. While other teams are frantically trying to improve themselves, the Clippers can take the long view. The Clippers should be asking themselves what, beyond Maggette, they are holding that's of any value to the rest of the league. To that end, they should see if there's a market for Sam Cassell. For an on-the-cusp team in need of a little attitudinal injection - say, Cleveland -- Cassell could be intriguing. In contrast, Sam is useful to the Clippers only if they're contending. The Clips could clear $6.1 million from next year's number, and hand over the team to Shaun Livingston. While making the postseason for a second consecutive year is of some symbolic import to the organization, figuring out, once and for all, if Shaun Livingston is The Guy, is more crucial. It's one thing to underachieve, but it's quite another to squander the flexibility that underachievement affords you.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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Comments

good writing. i've been talking about a cassell to the cavs trade for a while now. what i'm looking foward to is seeing what maggette and 2 first round picks can get us. this season is close to being lost, but we do have something to look foward to.

Interesting thoughts in that final graf. I agree that qualifying for the playoffs would be a sign of progress for a long-decrepit franchise. But if the squad must take a step back to take steps forward, I'm all for it. As for your thoughts on Shaun, well, after reading the ESPN piece on him, I agree with you wholeheartedly. It is readily apparent that in order for Shaun to succeed, he needs to work without a safety net. Having Cassell on this team (for Shaun) is a blessing and a curse. It allows him to learn under one of the most wily vets in the game, but also sends a confusing message as to who is running the team on the floor. Parting ways with Cassell would be a tough pill to swallow, but I think the Nation could condone such a move if it led to Shaun achieving his potential.

Great article as usual.
The Clips this season have proven one thing, and sadly that is to Donald Sterling that he shouldn't have spent the money he did (Kaman, Thomas and most importantly, Dunleavy). Uhm, maybe he should think about replacing Baylor too, just a thought.

I thought Livingston looked really good last season in the playoffs. Active, earning time because of his defense, etc. But every time I see your Clips he looks lethargic and seems to be reacting a second late to everything.

What are the chances that this season is a fluke of mediocre play? Or is what we're seeing now the real Shaun Livingston and last season's playoffs the fluke? Thoughts?

My thought would be: Anyone not watching a player day in and day out likely doesn't have the sample size necessary to make a judgement. For example, by catching just the correct games this season one could be led to believe that Chris Kaman either should have been considered for the all-star team OR shouldn't be in the league.

I think Shaun is sometimes out of position on defense...because he is trying to guard 1.5 players. He hedges for a weak link in the lineup. I think this in general helps the team since there are some truly weak defensive links there and Shaun has the smarts and length to do this, but sometimes it makes him look personally bad for it. A PG who can exploit this situation will make it worse.

See: Clipperblog's description of Joe Johnson's bucket vs Atlanta. In this case, Shaun is named as not coming over to help on the ball handler. If he comes and succeeds but the ball is kicked to the open Williams and he hits it, now maybe Shaun gets named as unnecessarily collapsing in this alternate reality version of the game. Shaun has been dinged in this space for that sort of play too. I think in this case its bad that he got caught in no-man's land, but if he even appeared in Johnson's vision that was really a victory since unlike the home team every other squad seems to understand spacing.

My observation is generally when Shaun looks "lost", he was just guarding two people and they understandably beat him.

Tell me why all these bad 10 day contracts Luke, Christie and now Von Wafer D league???? i am not renew my tix next year. I would rather Tivo the games and forward thru the agony!! Trust me I have been a fan for several losing seasons since Rodney Rodgers Pooh Richardson and Brett Barry Lamont Murray even Quinten Daily era. I remember when Dominique was Clipper and he busted the Tomahawk Dunk, losing seasons but not seeing it up close and being able to tune out makes a difference. This is the second season I have had season seats and I am done for. Back to big game packages and solo games.

PS.... I hate Corey Maggette, I used to blaim TT for the lack of swagger but now I realize it stems from selfish CM! Let him go and tired Sam (even though he has heart) Last year playing for contracts players stepped it up now no one cares to take it to the next level they are SIGNED!

It takes watching a team, yes team, like PHX to see how far the Clips have fallen. Talk about going through the motions. Blame MDSr all you like, but this is a passion-less bunch. The guys who talk about how the Clips used to be bad, but at least fun, are right. Mediocre and boring is worse. Much worse. Sorry gang, but Shaun ain't takin' nobody to the promised land. How good does the AI deal look now? We always knew EB wasn't a leader, but to basically shrug your shoulders after every loss with barely a peep is unacceptable. Sam's still got the fire -- the mind may be willing but the flesh is weak. Corey can and should go to a team that doesn't stress defense, and doesn't care about shot selection. TT, without Steve Nash getting him wide open looks, is Tim Thomas. If I see him wave his hand in front of that Beetlejuice grill after making one out of five 3s one more g-d time, I'm gonna lose my mind. And did Kaman, that Napoleon Dynamite, mopey motherf*&^%$r, just buy a yacht? Write it off, guys. I'd rather not even make the 8th spot and get massacred by Dallas. Show of hands, how many of you spend the off-days hoping the Lakers lose so you can feel just a tiny bit better?

To John R: Shaun doesn't just "look lost"; the problem is that he doesn't make good decisions when defending the pick and roll , screen and roll. I love Shaun...he just needs to improve defensively (and work on his shot from 12 ft and beyond).

It really is freakish to see phx space the floor. If a guy is standing around (a-la mags) he's always beyond the three AND he never crowds the ball. There were more than a few possesions where Bell was at the right corner and Marion was at the left corner, both above the 3pt line. To make things even better, there was a third phx player at the wing, above the 3pt line. Insane.

For the clippers, who are supposed to be an inside out team, that kind of spacing would do wonders for EB and Kaman. Granted we'd have to hit a few open shots, but spacing can't hurt. Not even phx can move faster than you could swing the ball.

Ugly game. Might have been the first time we left before the final horn.

Forget all that jazz. Doug Christie is no longer a clipper. THank YOU. Von Wafer is now a clipper, I wonder if we can work our CBA magic w/ him. Just like finds as Harold Ellis, Ty Nesby, Rick brunson, Boykins and Outlaw

"fuck this team...bucnch of fucking losers...and yet, i'll still watch their games...why do i do this to myself???? i just don't know..."

ahaha good stuff. I don't know either!

I agree with John R. and Kevin's previous comments on Dunleavy. Makes sense. But that doesn't stop me from hating him real hard. Name a coach who would do a *worse* job with this squad? Come on, tell me. It's absurd.

2. Sam Cassell is getting old. But his presence still means a lot to this team. He's no longer an obstacle to Shaun's game. They both understand the situation. There's no battle of egos here.

3. The league saved Elton Brand from ALL STAR waste of time.

4. We have Dunleavy as our coach. I can't think of any other coach who's meticulous & disciplined as him. He doesn't blame players when things go wrong(watch our ZEN Master going nuts for losing six in a row)

5. If we can play better than Golden State & Hornets, we can climb the ladder and have a better record than the Lakers. Denver & TWolves pose no threat to Clips.

6. Like Phoenix, Clippers future doesn't depend on ONE player. NASH is 33 and probably this is his last opportunity. But his style of play won't bring them the championship ring.
Without him SUNS are horrible. They avoid fundamentals & go for quick fix. Fortunately we don't try to mimic them.

7. Clippers are not a laughing stock anymore. Let's give credit to Cassell & Dunleavy for making this team semi-solid.

Hey Dave. If you think getting in the playoffs in the seventh or eighth spot and going one and out is good then you are on another planet when it comes to a successful season. We would be better served to get in the lottery and maybe pick up a good player if only Elgin has learned his lesson and doesn't listen to MD and get himself stuck with another Korolev. I would much rather have a chance to get Oden or Durant than to just make the playoffs for one round.